Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Property stocks listed in Shanghai
fell the most of any industry group on China’s biggest exchange
after the nation’s largest listed real estate developer posted a
drop in January sales.

The index tracking the shares of property companies listed
in Shanghai fell as much as 2 percent to 2,845.06 and was
trading at 2,848.67 points as of 2:37 p.m. China’s benchmark
Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4 percent.

China Vanke Co. said after markets closed Feb. 3 that its
January sales fell 39 percent from a year earlier, followed by
Guangzhou R&F Properties Co., a developer based in southern
China’s Guangdong province, which said the same day its January
contract sales plunged 57 percent. Government limits on
mortgages and home purchases led to a fifth consecutive monthly
decline in nationwide prices as tracked by SouFun Holdings Ltd.,
owner of China’s biggest real-estate website.

“Property sales will surely do poorly throughout the first
quarter,” said Cui Juan, a Beijing-based analyst at Minzu
Securities Co. “Prices are just starting to fall and people are
still staying to the sidelines.”

China’s home prices dropped 0.18 percent in January from
December, data from SouFun showed. The five consecutive months
of declines made up the longest streak of drops since SouFun
began tracking prices.

Vanke fell as much as 2.2 percent to 7.62 yuan in Shenzhen
and was trading at 7.63 yuan as of 2:32 p.m. Guangzhou R&F fell
1.6 percent to HK$8.05 in Hong Kong trading.

Beijing Capital Development Co., a developer in the Chinese
capital, fell the most of any stock in the Shanghai Composite
Index. It dropped as much as 5.7 percent to 9.19 yuan in
Shanghai and traded at 9.20 yuan as of 2:34 p.m. local time.